Germany to Accept Syrian Refugees

GENEVA — After registering more than two million refugees from Syria in neighboring countries, the United Nations announced on Tuesday the first step toward resettling victims of the conflict in other countries with the planned movement of more than 100 Syrians to Germany this week.

A group of 107 Syrians, all coming from Lebanon, will be the first contingent of up to 5,000 refugees from Syria’s civil war that Germany is to accept by the end of this year under a temporary humanitarian admissions program, said Melissa Fleming, the spokeswoman for the United Nations high commissioner for refugees.

The group includes survivors of torture and refugees identified as particularly vulnerable or with special needs, Ms. Fleming said. “This is really a lifesaving tool for most of them,” she said.

The United Nations is seeking to resettle 12,000 Syrian refugees this year but so far has found places for only around 7,000 in 12 Western countries, Ms. Fleming said.

Discussions on resettlement are under way with a number of other countries, including the United States, which has agreed to take an unspecified number of refugees, Ms. Fleming said. She appealed to other countries to help “share the burden” carried by neighboring countries like Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, which have taken in more than a million Syrians in the past six months.